Tormented

"Already? Isn't this your first time? Are you sure you didn't mess up?"

"I am Black. I do not do this 'mess up' thing you speak of. This was nothing for me."

"Okay, now, eat the memory on the spoon and you should get it. We can just place the memory back in him later."

Zeeth immediately felt the results, the memory he had just been thinking about, him talking about God with Black and Page, was suddenly gone and he had no clue what he was thinking about, like a dream he was trying to hold onto that faded from his mind despite all his attempts to keep it. Suddenly, he had a memory from Black, it was Black clearing out his impurities. He was sitting in the same carriage, looking at the same area but no one was talking and he suddenly knew how Black cleaned out his body.

Black faded from his vocal cords and Zeth gained back his mouth. Moving his jaw around, he told Page to get some rest, they had to fight babies from hell the next day. Zeeth didn't have to sleep, but Page did.

As Page slid off to sleep, Zeeth asked, 'Black, I still don't fully understand. Why did you choose me? I'm sure there are plenty of others who are more interesting than me in this big wide world.'

'Exactly, big wide world. Do you think I have time to go around this whole place to look for the most interesting thing to take over? Your body was something I had never seen before, your skill more powerful than most skills, even talents. That locket was also a pretty big deal; the magic is extraordinary, it is frightfully close to another magic that I have felt before. The most dangerous magic I have ever felt, and this locket holds mana that is the closest to that magic that I have ever seen.'

'What's that other magic?'

'I'm sure you will meet her someday. My greatest nemesis, the one being who has been able to fight with me on equal standing through all the ages. But make sure to never tell her that I think of us as equals. She tends to remember such things and torment me with it.'

'Who is she?'

'It is hard to explain but you will meet her someday, I am sure of it. And it will be clear on the day we meet, she will find my mana and seek me out.'

'How is it that you became an eyeball for people to consume? Is there some sort of ritual, because it sounds pretty cool to be immortal.'

'You wish to be immortal? Forever dependent on another being for survival and growth? I can hardly do anything by myself, I do not believe you wish to be like me. However as for my origin, I don't even remember my time as a human, the first thing I remember was the day I became an eyeball. I awoke in an area extremely dense in dark mana. Blood coated every inch of me and I was only able to stay awake due to the dense mana.

Soon, someone picked me up and swallowed me whole. That was the first time I remember fighting for my life, he tried to control me as I fought to pierce his mind. Obviously, I won but, to this day, it is still one of the most difficult battles I have ever faced, also the most rewarding. And the rest is history, my tales should have been recorded in texts of history.'

'That sounds like a rocky start.'

'Not so much as you, in your memory, your body's foundation is far weaker than the normal person. It's as if you were born weak, your bones are weaker than the normal person, but your months of training with this Afir have brought your body to something of a peak. Your growth is second to mine in all my visions, starting from the weakest thing I have ever seen to such a state. After seeing your past, I am quite impressed with your growth. Even training in the art of the bow, something I quite enjoy.'

Getting up to stretch his legs, Zeeth asked, 'You like bow shooting?'

'Yes, it gives me strange joy to fire an arrow. I like pulling back the strong despite being rather needless compared to my magic.'

'Yeah, it is fun. Maybe that's why I was able to get so good. I really enjoyed it. Right! That ring you took from Karkov, I can't believe I forgot to ask you until now, but what happened to it? I was told it was the Devil's Anus.' Zeeth asked, walking around and leaving the empty house they were given to rest in.

'It was a fake. A simple replica made by a master craftsman, a rather useful ring, but nothing too impressive. I'm still trying to break it down to take all its magic, but I should soon be able to replicate cells with black magic and short distance teleportation of small objects.'

Walking around, he eventually ended up at the hall leading to the Elder's room. The hall of records stretching into it, half of them missing, having been taken by the first batch of travelers. For some reason, all the lights were extinguished and no guards stood where they normally should.

'Zeeth. I sense a negative presence.'

'Yeah, I thought there were supposed to be guards here protecting the records.'

'It's greedy, it wishes for something it doesn't have. It knows you are here, and now it is jealous.'

"Who's there?" Zeeth asked into the darkness. Gul made a Lumos Gem for him and shone the light into the darkness.

"Zeeth, the big hero who brought joy to this little village of Dwarves. Who made an elder's nephew our very own pride and joy. Are you having fun, getting all this attention and power?" the light shone onto the face of a dwarf he had never met before. She had a hammer in one hand and a fistful of hair in the other. Her eyes glared at him, one of them covered with a black lens.

Ignoring the obvious question of who she was, mildly enraged, he asked, "Getting this attention and power? You think it was gifted to me on a silver platter?"

"No. You worked for it, did you not? You trained, and fought, and became strong, you had the talent and potential. And used this strength to save us from the dragons and gain all this gratitude from the others."

"Then what is your point?"

"My point? It's not that I think you're a bad person or anything, but I can't help but feel envious. Why are our lives so different? You said we all wish to be on equal standing, right? And that all us dwarves live in peace? Or that the elves are good? But how do you know that it's just because they defeated another evil? A greater evil? That does not mean the elves aren't bad, it just means the other side was worse in comparison. What if they take this power to their heads and try to be our leaders?"

"Then I will intervene and fix the situation. If there is trouble, I'm sure, even without me, there will be a group that wishes for peace and they will fix it. Now, why are you here, and what happened to the guards?"

"But you are willing to risk us going through the issues? What if we try to take them over and succeed? How do you know we are as good as you think we are?"

"I said, what happened to the guards." Zeeth restated, firmly, ignoring her questions.

"Do you know who those guards are? Do you know what I am known as? Well, there is no need for you to guess. Over here, I am known as the 'puny' dwarf, the 'useless' dwarf. The most 'middle layered dwarf' there ever was. Those guards were some of our village's greatest fighters. They are one of the most respected, the most sought-after roles, they should be the best dwarves around, right? But do you know what they treat others who they don't care about? They were the ones to start all those names, the ones who forced others to stop sympathizing for me and instead make fun of me.

They are the worst even though they should have been the best. They used their reputation to have fun and put me down, someone they believed to be useless except for comedic relief. To think I once respected them. To think I even loved one of them!" she yelled. Swinging her hammer, a swirl of dark magic spun out from it and smashed into the glass covering the records. For a moment, the light shone onto the floor and revealed the bloody faces of two guards.

"Do you honestly think they are all good people? Do you really think we won't all be acting behind each other's backs? Undermining the efforts of the other, all to gain power and popularity? Oh, how easy it would be for you, coming here as the famous guardian, protecting those from the harm of a dragon and a beast. You would quickly become like these here," she lightly kicked one of the guards while saying that, "looking down on others beneath them while trying to gain popularity with kids, peers, or others greater than you."

"You are doing this because you are an outcast?"

"An outcast? You wouldn't even be able to begin to understand, at least an outcast can be ignored or fight back, but I am tormented. People don't ignore me, they seek me out to hurt me, I am entertainment to them. An unwilling one. And for years, ever since they found out how useless I was, I took it lying down. Being weak and unconfident, I didn't do anything against them, my greatest regret. But, finally, I have grown. I have a solution, a solution that I will take care of without the help of any of these fools, but with the help of a Demon," she said, slowly becoming a maniacal laugh, showing a circle on her hand sliced onto her hand. It was now a pale scar. Zeeth stared at it in mild surprise and interest at the tiny details, small letters and pictures he didn't recognize were drawn into it.

She continued to yell, even more crazily now, "And I will end their existence, kill the rest of these dwarves after taking all their knowledge and. But I must thank you very much, splitting this town into two. I will first take all their records, kill everyone here, and then kill the second half. Even with the power of a contract, I cannot kill the entire town at once."

"All the records? At least half of them left this morning," he said. He needed to figure more about what she was doing, possibly finding a weakness and letting Black and himself build up some magic.

"Fool, I made copies of all of them and recorded them all into one big record. Even the special records that the elders hid. Can you believe those old coots? They are supposed to be the oldest and wisest, looking to further dwarven society, yet they hid such records? You know, I looked through one, and I didn't even know what it did or was, but it looked impressive, it was supposed to permanently increase the strength of anyone using it. Yet they hid them from us, holding this knowledge for themselves.

But have no fear, their knowledge will all come to me, I will be the best dwarf, the ruler of all metalwork! When I make my own society, everyone can have everything! And you, the savior from the dragon, will be my first grand achievement. I will kill you and your friends, show to the world that even I, alone, could block a dragon."

"I will have to disagree with a lot of that, first of all, we had four people-"

"Yes, the weak man that died? His brother already sent in the death to the association and got the money. What a weakling. I bet he didn't even do anything, right? Even I could've done better than him."

"What?" Zeeth growled, quiet but aggressively. "He gave us the opportunity to kill the dragon, he actually injured it, something I don't expect you to be able to do in a million years."

"Kill? Did you kill it? That's not what the Association said. Does that mean you have all the contents of the dragon?"

"None. of. Your. business." Zeeth said, sending Lumos gems from Gul at her like daggers to light up the area and check her abilities. She dodged most of them, but one hit her on the arm and bruised her. He was surprised at her rather slow speed, but also her tough skin. He was sure he sent the gem at enough speed to at least scratch a wall of greystone.

He rushed forward but the scar on her hand glowed, moving her hand by itself. The hammer swung at his head but he ducked away but saw her annoyed expression at the hand moving on its own. She held it back with the other hand and stopped the quivering, wanting to move her hand by herself.

"I've got this." she told it, "I saw his battle with the human, he is nothing. Just give me some explosive magic and I will handle him myself."

The hand quivered a bit but she was already ignoring it. Clenching her hammer, which now swirled with even more black magic than before. Standing from a distance, he was about to shoot her with razor-sharp water, but, remembering the boredom he felt playing his game, he wanted to do something more fun, more challenging. Deciding not to use any of his long-distance skills and just defeat her using his body, he charged again and punched her in the face. His hammer swung down on him, the black magic missing his body and flying to the floor, creating a large pit where magic swiveled and dissipated like steam.

She landed a distance away, the hammer still surprisingly in her hand. Her skin and the material from the hammer were melted together, unable to just come apart.

He rushed forward again and prepared to knock her out, but she pulled out a large book- no, a metal record wrapped with dragon skin- and held it in front of her.

She pried open the book, a bright light-catching Zeeth off guard and a bright golden flash erupted from the record, sending him into a strange flash of information. A flood of relevant historical knowledge about the dwarves and their techniques flew into his head in a single second, that felt like an eternity. It felt like someone was sending never-ending bricks to his head.

"You should never have looked. No one can withstand all this information at once, you will die along with all this knowledge ruining your mind. I feel foolish even talking to you, I would be surprised if you could even wake up again, heh heh." Lifting a sword, the dwarf prepared to slice off Zeeth's head, chuckling maniacally to herself.